Water aerator



June 1959 F. M. TOMLINSON 2,889,999

WATER AERATOR Filed July 1, 1957 IN VEN TOR. F4 /1 TOMZ/A/SO/V,

United States Patent Ofice 2,889,999 Patented June 9, 1959 2,889,999 WATER AERATOR Fay M. Tomlinson, Daytona Beach, Fla. Application July 1, 1957, Serial No..668,944

Claims. (Cl. 239-431) The present invention relates to an aerator for association with the discharge mouth of a liquid conduit, so constructed and arranged as to convert a solid stream of water, .or the like, into an intimate mixture of small air bubbles with the water resembling an air-and-water foam, thus producing a discharge stream which is almost completely non-splashing. While devices generally intended to accomplish a similar result have long been known, those devices have inherent deficiencies which it is the object of the present invention to overcome.

Devices heretofore known for accomplishing the general purpose of the present invention have invariably embodied fine-mesh screens or plates provided with a multiplicity of extremely fine perforations. Experience has shown that such devices require frequent cleaning, if they are to be maintained for any substantial period in effective operation, due .to the clogging of the minute openings through such screensor perforated plates, by deposits of solid matter filtered from the controlled stream. Such deposits, of course, are most troublesome when the devices in question are used inconnection with a hard water supply; but even in regions having soft water, a substantial degree of clogging occurs even during relatively short periods of use. It has been found that most householders lack either the patience or the skill required properly to clean such devices when such deposits have accumulated, and consequently the effective life of previously-known devices for accomplishing the general purpose of the present invention, is relatively short.

I have provided a novel attachment whose inherent construction is such as to militate against clogging by the deposition of scale, or the like, and which performs unusually well its basic function of converting a solid stream to an aerated foam.

Further objects of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, my invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only, and that change may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described, so long as the scope of the appended claims is not violated.

Fig. l is an axial section through an adapter sleeve equipped with the aerating attachment of the present invention, taken substantially on the line 11 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 2 is a similar section through one element of the aerator;

Fig. 3 is a transaxial section of the assembly of Fig. 1, taken substantially on the line 3-3;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of another element of the aerator;

Fig. 5 is a fragmental section of a portion of the element illustrated in Fig. 4 drawn to an enlarged scale; and

Fig. 6 is an elevation of a conventional water faucet with which the attachment of Fig. 1 is operatively associated, parts being broken away for clarity of illustration.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the aerator of the present invention comprises a shell-like plug 10 having, at its closed end, a flared contour, as indicated at 11. Preferably, such contour will be concavo-convexly part-spherical, though some of the advantages of the invention can be attained if such surface is frustoconical. Intermediate its ends, the said plug is formed to provide a substantially cylindrical portion 12 which preferably will be proportioned and designed snugly to fill the liquid conduit in which the device is to be mounted, and a heavy, quick thread 13 may preferably be formed upon said cylindrical section. Preferably, at its end opposite the contoured end 11, the plug is formed with a radially-outwardly projecting flange 14 which, when the device is seated in a liquid conduit, will bear upon and close the adjacent conduit end.

At an intermediate point in the flared surface 11, the plug is formed with a peripheral series of spaced ports 15, said ports being so arranged that their individual axes converge substantially in the point X which will preferably be located on the axis of plug 10.

As is clearly shown, the plug 10 is hollow, is closed at its flared end except for the ports 15, and is open at its opposite end.

A hollow baffle 16 is supported within the plug 10 in coaxial relationship therewith. One end of the baffle is flared as at 17 upon a contour which is similar to, but smaller than, the contour of the flared end 11 of the plug 10. The contoured surface 17 of the bafile 16 is formed with a peripheral series of ports 18, equal in number and angular spacing with the ports 15 of the plug it) so that, when the parts 10 and 16 are assembled in the manner illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3, each port 18 coaxially registers with a port 15. The ports 18 have diameters substantially larger than the diameters of the ports 15 with which they register; and preferably each port 18 is provided with an internally extended bell mouth 19. Any suitable means may be provided for supporting the baffle 16 in coaxial relationship within the plug 10, but I have shown a screw 20 penetrating an axial perforation in the closed end of the plug 10 and threadedly engaged in a bore 21 axially formed in the baffle 16, for that purpose. In order to insure proper registration of the ports 18 with the ports 15, the baflle may be deformed, at one or more points in its periphery, as at 22, for the reception of corresponding deformities 23 in the plug 10, as is clearly illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3.

The baffle 16 and the plug 10 are so proportioned and designed that their open months 24 and 25 define an annular entry to a chamber 26 defined between said baffle and said plug, permitting air flow to the mouths of the ports 18.

It is highly desirable that the ports 15 shall be bounded, at their upstream ends, by a convexly-tapering wall, as clearly shown at 27 in Fig. 5. This detail ensures that the liquid streams flowing through said ports will be the full diameter of the ports, without substantial cavitation, so that the port walls will be subjected, over their entire areas, to the scrubbing action of the high-velocity streams, whereby accumulation of sediment on the walls of the ports will be inhibited.

The aerator, as thus far described, may be secured, in any suitable manner, in the discharge mouth of a liquid conduit. It may be seated in such a conduit discharge mouth with a press fit, if the pressure behind the liquid stream to flow therethrough is not too high. In such a case, of course, the thread 13 will be omitted.

I prefer, however, to mount the aerator in an adapter 28 provided with means, such as the internal thread 29, for securing such adapter to the discharge mouth 32 of a conventional faucet having an external thread 31. As shown, the downstream end of the adapter 28 is formed with an internal thread 30 for engagement by the thread 13. It will be obvious that, as an alternative, the adapter 28 might be formed as a Whole, or at its upstream end, from resiliently extensible material, whereby the upsteam end thereof might be frictionally sleevable upon an unthreaded, and perhaps beaded, faucet mouth.

The ports 15 are of relatively small diameter, so that the streams of liquid flowing therethrough will flow at a relatively high velocity. As those streams flow through the larger ports 18, each stream acts, under the injection principle, to sheathe itself with a layer stream of air. These coaxial streams of water and air are highly directional and will collide, under high impact force, at the common focal point X to create a foamy mixture of water and air within the main chamber of the baflle 16. Since the mouth 25 of the baflle 16 is somewhat constricted, a shaped stream of Water, containing a high proportion of minute air bubbles, will flow therefrom.

I claim as my invention:

1. A device of the class described comprising a shelllike plug adapted to be seated in the discharge mouth of a liquid conduit to block flow therefrom except through said plug, said plug having a flared contour at its upstream end and being formed therein with a series of ports, angularly spaced about the axis of said plug, said ports being formed on separate axes which meet substantial-ly in a common point within the interior of said plug, and a hollow baifle supported within said plug and having a flared contour at its upstream end spaced from the flared contour of said plug end, said baflle being formed in its flared end with a plurality of ports having inwardlyextending bell mouths, said baflle ports registering with said plug ports and being substantially coaxial with said plug ports, respectively, said plug and said baflle being open at their downstream ends.

2. A device of the class described comprising a shelllike plug adapted to be seated in the discharge mouth of a liquid conduit to block flow therefrom except through said plug, said plug having a flared contour at its upstream end and being formed therein with a series of ports, angula rly spaced about the axis of said plug, said ports being formed on separate axes which meet substantially in a common point in the axis of said plug, and

. a hollow baflle supported within said plug and having a flared contour at its upstream end spaced from the contour of said plug end, said baflie being formed in its flared end with a plurality of ports having inwardly-extending bell mouths, said baffle ports registering with said plug ports and being substantially coaxial with said plug ports, respectively, said plug and said bafile being open at their downstream ends.

3. An attachment for water faucets comprising a sleeve formed at one end for removable connection to the discharge mouth of a water faucet and formed at its opposite end with an internal thread, a shell-like plug having a flared surface at its upstream end and a substantially cylindrical section adjacent its downstream end, said cylindrical section closely fitting said sleeveand being provided with an external thread for cooperation with said sleeve thread, and said plug further providing, adjacent its downstream end, flange means overlying the downstream end of said sleeve, the flared surface of said plug being formed with a perimetral series of ports formed on separate axes which converge substantially in a common point within said plug, and a hollow baflie supported within said plug and having a flared contour at its upstream end spaced [from the flared contour of said plug end, said baflie being formed in its flared end with a plurality of ports having inwardly-extending bell mouths, said baflle ports registering with said plug ports and being substantially coaxial with said plug ports, respectively, said plug and said baflie being open at their downstream ends, and the perimetral walls of said batfle being inwardly spaced from the peripheral Walls of said plug throughout substantially the entire extent thereof 4. The device of claim 1 in which the upstream end of each port in said plug is defined by a convexly-tapering boundary.

5. The device of claim 1 in which the upstream end of each port in said plug is defined by a convexly-tapering boundary and the effective area of each port in said baffle substantially exceeds the eifective area of the coaxial port in said plug.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,247,310 Rockwood June 10, 1941 2,316,135 Turek et al. Apr. 6, 1943 2,603,469 Bedford et al. July 15, 1952 2,738,798 Goodrie Mar. 20, 1956 2,744,738 Hjulian May 8, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 315,823 Switzerland Oct. 31, 1956 

